Early childhood education students in the north offered free, accelerated, schooling
Early childhood education students in the north offered free, accelerated, schooling
Four northern Ontario districts are in the midst of a new partnership with Northern College that gave dozens of people access to an accelerated early childhood education program for free.
Some district social services administration boards in the region have paid the tuition, books and fees for around 40 students.
Timiskaming’s DSSAB recently announced that it’s funding six students, specifically those who are currently working in child care but are not yet certified early childhood educators (ECEs).
“It’s a compressed program,” said the organization’s manager of children’s services, Lyne Labelle.
“They will receive their two-year diploma in 16 months and the child care centres will benefit from having qualified staff.”
That adds up to around $10,000 of education costs per student being covered by the Timiskaming DSSAB.
Labelle said it is also topping up the students’ wages as they balance work and school. That means they’re being paid for class time, up to 40 hours per week.
The Cochrane district’s DSSAB is also participating. Children’s services manager Shannon Costello said it is helping working students achieve their ECE certifications.
“Educators that are currently working in the field, that are not qualified, work and get their qualifications at the same time,” Costello said.
This is all possible due to federal and provincial funding announced last year, under the Child and Early Years Workforce Funding program.
It’s aimed at recruiting and retaining ECEs. The problem is many left the profession during the COVID-19 pandemic and not enough ECE students are enrolling in post-secondary programs.
Cochrane DSSAB received around $850,000, which it is using partly to fund students’ education, as well as to develop programs for retaining existing staff.
The field has been seeing soaring demand for child care, with Ontario now cutting costs in half — after joining the national $10-a-day child care initiative — and with further demand expected once costs reach that goal.
Labelle said a recent local survey showed that parents are looking to return to the workforce as costs decline, which will only mean further demand for child care.
Costello said Timmins alone has a waitlist of more than 300 children for daycare and around 100 for after-school care.
ALREADY UNDERSTAFFED
With the province aiming to create 86,000 new child-care spaces, she said there’s pressure to make sure they’re staffed, adding that current spaces are already understaffed.
“We currently need 113 registered ECEs to open our spaces at full capacity, without any expansion,” Costello said.
The Nipissing and Kenora districts are also participating in the accelerated ECE certification partnership, in an effort to up-skill existing staff.
Post-secondary schools across the region also offer free pre-ECE online programs to get people started in the field.
The province also offers an Ontario ECE Grants program to help aspiring educators with tuition.
Labelle said though the funding is limited — the last round of workforce capacity funds is being issued in March — Timiskaming DSSAB is already considering supporting another cohort of students.
“As long as the funding is available, I think we’re going to follow this path,” Labelle said.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday evening in Ottawa for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could see asylum seekers turned back at irregular border crossings across the border, including Roxham Road in Quebec.
As the federal government looks to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S., an eastern Ontario mayor says his city needs more help from Ottawa to deal with the influx of asylum seekers arriving through irregular crossings like Roxham Road.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
A majority of Canadians have seen a mistake on their grocery receipts in the last year, according to a new survey conducted by Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
The quick thinking and immediate actions of two people are credited with possibly saving the life of a Midland councillor after he collapsed at a meeting Wednesday evening.
Investigators with York Regional Police issued Canada-wide warrants for two men who they say are involved in the Richmond Hill attack on Ontario woman Elnaz Hajtamiri weeks before she was allegedly abducted.
An Ontario man said he was shocked when his truck was stolen not once but twice, and the second time it was taken he was surprised to discover he was no longer covered for theft.
Ottawa residents are being told to expect road closures, transit delays and heightened security in the downtown core today, as U.S. President Joe Biden continues his visit to the capital. CTVNewsOttawa.ca looks at what you need to know about President Biden's second day in Ottawa.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday evening in Ottawa for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
The ‘Catch the Ace’ jackpot is still up for grabs in Hagersville. There was no winner Thursday night so the total prize money is now an estimated $1,526,067.
The resurrection of Zellers is officially underway with the Cambridge location opening its doors to eager shoppers who lined up ahead of the store's official reopening.
The new provincial budget features items specific to southwestern Ontario, including a new English public elementary school in London, Ont. that will serve 556 students and include 88 licensed childcare spaces.
A young Strathroy, Ont. man believes there's a promising way forward in the effort to fight his disease. But, he's being told, right now, that path isn't open to him. Friends and family are stepping up to try and make a case for Kyle McPhee to receive immunotherapy treatments.
After a year-and-a-half without, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) says it’s narrowing in on hiring a permanent chief medical officer of health.
When the permit to construct a replacement span for the Ambassador Bridge expired in the summer of 2022, many thought that would bring an end to a 20-year saga of boarded up homes in the city’s west end.
For the first time, the owner of a building in Old Montreal has responded to questions about the fire — through his lawyer — addressing allegations that the building was unsafe.
The political class at the National Assembly has condemned the 'violent' and 'hateful' remarks that columnist Gilles Proulx allegedly made about Quebec solidaire MNAs during Richard Martineau's show on Qub radio in recent weeks.
The Tim Houston PC government remains firm in their promise they'll fix the health-care system by spending more taxpayer money on health than any previous government before.
Potato farmers on Prince Edward Island are taking the federal government to court due to the decision to restrict the movement of P.E.I. seed potatoes.
Manitoba First Nation police have arrested a man connected with a shooting on March 19 on Long Plain First Nation that resulted in the community going on lockdown.
Manitoba’s labour force is growing at a rate to supply enough workers for available positions into 2026, according to the province’s labour market outlook.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has cited an energy company for causing a series of earthquakes, including the largest recorded tremblor in the province's history.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has cited an energy company for causing a series of earthquakes, including the largest recorded tremblor in the province's history.
Following a court appearance Thursday, a B.C. woman facing more than 20 charges – including manslaughter – in connection with alleged druggings of men who used escort services was remanded into custody.
The man killed in West Vancouver earlier this week was a retired urologist who was involved in several legal disputes over valuable real estate, CTV News has learned.
